Sunshine

Chapter 10 - Sunshine

Words carved into stone, etched into a rocky cliff on a sandy shore. Akaja remembered the day these words were carved. The nighttime sky illuminated with stars, the ocean waves lapping against the shore, her cheeks flushed red with sweet rum, wearing a dress that she could never possibly afford.

Simpler times… days when she was truly happy. When she had a prince that would quite literally sweet her off her feet. They were days that would never return, memories that could never be relived.

I never want to see you again! Those words, spoken in her voice, rang out in her head. Just get out of my life!

They were the last words she had ever spoken to him. Vicious and laced with venom, spurred on by anger and jealousy. She couldn’t even remember exactly what she was angry about. It was just a mountain of things that slowly drove a wedge between them… until it became too much.

A single raven’s feather drifted down onto the stone, dark as the night sky, yet with faint silver glimmers reminiscent of the stars above. Akaja glanced upwards, and saw it perched on a rock further up the cliff-side. Dark as the void, yet spotted with silver, its deep yellow eye stared at her with a penetrating gaze.

“You’re the bird from the hideout,” Akaja said. “Who are you? What are you?”

“We already answered that question,” The bird said, speaking with Akaja’s voice. “I am you, and you are me.”

“I don’t really understand.”

“The mind, soul, and will of mortals is a powerful and volatile thing,” The raven continued. “I come from a realm shaped by the thoughts and emotions of mortals. Your true desires, the song of your soul, has birthed me into being.”

Could this be related to what Andros was researching? To the orb? She needed to have another conversation with him about this.

“That power you gave me to fight Talai was pretty useful,” Akaja said. “How do I… keep doing that?”

“The song,” Spoke the raven. “The hymn of your soul. All creatures with a soul have a song, yet most go their entire lives without hearing a single note from it. It is a song of desire, of faith, a song that encompasses the true you, your very being. To face and accept one’s true self, to master the desires of your heart… that is how you hear the song. That is how you can wield the power granted to you by your other self. Me. When the Old Gods still ruled this realm, they were empowered by the faith and belief of their worshipers. You can do the same with yourself. Empowering the spirit through sheer force of will.”

“I see…” She still didn’t quite understand, but at least she had some idea where that new power of her’s came from. She really needed to poke Andros’ brain about all this. “I get that you are me, but… is there something I can call you? I’d prefer to not just call you ‘me’ or ‘Akaja 2.’”

“You may call me, Morrigan.” The raven answered.

“Alright, Morrigan…” Akaja said, running her fingers along the engraving on the stone. “We have work to do.” She pressed down on the stone. Click! An opened slowly formed in the rock, which led to a dark tunnel. As she stepped inside, the entrance closed itself back up, and the torches which lined the walls suddenly lit up with a blue flame.

Centuries ago, when the Akiyamas took control of the city, and formed the Syndicate, they built a series of underground escape tunnels, many of which led to their main headquarters, Suzaku Castle. Knowledge of these tunnels were kept in the family. Yu had taken a BIG risk in giving her access to one, and Akaja had more than enjoyed the easy access to Suzaku Castle for her regular “visits.”

The tunnels themselves had numerous safe-houses for emergencies, at least that’s what Yu had told her. Akaja had only seen one, their little hideaway for the times they just wanted to isolate themselves from the world. “Heaven,” they called it. Their private little sanctuary free of responsibility.

The safe-house was modestly sized, a single room containing a large bed, a table, and a bar still stocked with fancy wines and liquors. It didn’t appear to have been touched since the last time she and Yu were here.

She didn’t linger long however. Another secret switch opened up another tunnel. This was her prize, her secret entrance to Suzaku Castle.

The castle itself was built into the cliff-side, overlooking the markets, Iwo Park, and the ocean. Due to the sheer size of it, the castle could qualify as its own district, housing hundreds of servants, guards, workers, and of course, the Akiyamas. Farm terraces lined its outer walls, and a gorgeous garden took up most of the castle’s central courtyard, its halls displaying fine works of art.

Akaja was unsure how welcome she would be here, so she “borrowed” some clothes, and dressed herself up as one of the maids.

The castle was bustling with activity, even more so than usual. The amount of Samurai patrolling the castle grounds had doubled, and the serving staff was frantic, trying to prepare the castle for the many guests that were arriving. Akaja herself was pulled aside a few times by some of the senior staff, and re-directed to some mundane or tedious task. They were easy enough to sneak away from, but she at least got some decent information from some of the other servants.

The Akiyamas were holding a wake for Yu, and everyone with even a modicum of influence in the city was invited. Thankfully the body wasn’t on display quite yet, so she headed towards where thought Yu’s corpse might be.

When she arrived at Yu’s old quarters the door was locked. Figures. The door wasn’t hard to pick. Yu used to change the locks on his door for fun, finding increasingly complicated and intricate mechanisms to challenge her. One of their many little games they played. However, when the door opened, she was greeted by a child, a little girl, who couldn’t be more than ten years old.

She was frail, with stark white hair, and golden eyes that gave off a radiant glow, reminiscent of the sun. She sat on the carpet beside the bed, reading a large book, a toy fox on her lap. The girl didn’t pay Akaja much attention when she entered the room, only giving her a cursory glance before continuing her reading. She appeared to be reading aloud to the fox.

“Harried by storms, monsters, and famine the one-hundred dwindled to fifty… then to twenty-five…” The girl frowned, then glanced back up to Akaja. “Excuse me. What does famine mean?”

“Uhm…” Akaja slowly entered the room, and closed the door behind her. “It means there’s no food.”

“Sounds bad…”

“It sure is.”

Satisfied with her answer, the girl resumed her reading.

“What’s your name?” Akaja asked softly. “I’m Akaja.”

“I don’t have one.”

“Well, don’t they call you anything?”

“They call me a lot of things,” The girl said. “But those aren’t my names…”

“Are you a friend of the Akiyamas? Where are your parents?”

“I don’t know… but the people here are nice sometimes. Nobody really talks to me though.” She seemed to perk up. “Did they send you to play with me? Uncle Kazuki says if I behave then he’ll send some friends to play with me. The last time I was good he gave me Mr. Fox to play with.” She lifted the toy fox on the air to show her. “He likes reading! Oh, and tea.”

Kazuki? Yu’s younger brother? He would’ve inherited the Syndicate after his death. I wonder how he’s handling his new position, Akaja thought to herself, He was always a little on the shy side.

“Of course they sent me to play with you!” Akaja said with a smile. “I think… well, I need to call you something. What do you want to be called?”

The girl was giddy with excitement, hugging her fox tightly as she bounced up and down. “Yay! Oh, uh… I don’t know. Nobody’s ever asked me that before.”

“I see…” Akaja hummed in thought. “What about Sunshine? Because… well, your eyes are very pretty! Like rays of sunshine! What do you think?”

She tilted her head in thought, then grinned excitedly. “I like it! Sunshine! I’m Sunshine! Suuuuuuuuunssshiiiiiiine!”

This poor girl. Akaja didn’t know who she was, or what she was doing here, but she felt bad for her. From the looks of things she was locked in this room by herself most of the time. She didn’t want to just leave her, especially since she seemed so excited when someone started to talk to her. “Want to see something neat?”

Akaja entertained Sunshine with numerous sleight of hand tricks, one being he classic ‘pretend to remove one of your fingers’ trick, and another being ‘the coin was actually behind your ear the entire time!’

Sunshine was thoroughly entertained by these party tricks, acting as if Akaja had casted literal magic in front of her, though with Morrigan’s help she probably could do that.

“How did you do that?” Sunshine asked as Akaja began to “remove” another finger from her hand.

“That’s a secret,” Akaja said with a wink. “I might tell you later though. Unfortunately… I have to go soon. I have work I need to do.”

Sunshine frowned sadly, the glow in her eyes dimming. “Aw… okay…”

“Actually… there might be something you can help me with.”

“Really?” Excitement once again filled Sunshine’s face as her eyes literally beamed with joy. “I wanna help!”

“Do you know Yu? He’s Uncle Kazuki’s brother.”

Sunshine nodded. “Yup! The mean one!”

“Mean?”

“Uncle Kazuki always talked about how mean his brother was to him! He sounds scary!”

“Huh…” Akaja scratched her head. “Well… do you know where they’re keeping him?”

“Yep! I wanna show you, but I’m not allowed to leave this room. They’ll get mad at me…

“I don’t want you to get in trouble,” Akaja said softly. “You can just tell me where he is.”

“Down, down, down below.” Sunshine answered. “You go down all these stairs, and its very dark, and dusty.”

“I think I know what you’re talking about…” The dungeons? Why would they be keeping his body down there. “Thanks, Sunshine! You’re the best.”

“I’m happy to help!” Sunshine exclaimed. “I like helping! You… you’ll come back won’t you? To play with me and Mr. Fox again?”

“I will.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

Akaja felt bad about leaving Sunshine behind. Part of her wanted to steal the girl away from the castle, and drop her off at Ryoma’s doorstep. The man had a tendency to take in strays. He did the same thing for her when her own parents went missing. She’d hold off on the potential kidnapping for now.

She snuck her way to the castle dungeons. The samurai didn’t pay her too much attention so long as she didn’t get too close. Most of their attention was focused on the guests coming into the castle

Akaja was familiar with the layout of the castle thanks to her numerous visits, however, the dungeons was one of he few sections that she hadn’t been to yet. The stairway leading to the dungeons were unguarded, and the only obstacle she encountered thus far was a locked door, which she quickly picked.

Once opened, she arrived in a wide stone hallway. A red carpet cut through the center of the hall, to the large stone door at the end. The door itself was covered in numerous magical runes, and on either side of it stood two stone statues depicting two lions, one holding a sword its its claw, while the other held an orb of some kind.

Akaja slowly approached the door, her eyes scanning the room for any potential traps. The door itself didn’t seem to have a mechanical lock, or any clear mechanism that would open it. It was magically barred shut.

There were three ways to open a magically locked door (that she knew of). The first and most obvious choice would be a scroll of dispel magic. Unfortunately, those were quite expensive to come by, and most shops wouldn’t be advertising them out in the open. The second method was to overload the wards with enough energy to cause them to break. This however, would probably alert half the castle to her presence. The third and final option would be to re-write the wards and runes on the door. This method, however, was time consuming, and difficult. Screwing this method up would trigger whatever defenses the door was carrying. Plus, she had no idea how to write or re-write runes.

Perhaps she should have bought a scroll of dispel magic from the markets while she was still with Yukiko, but… well, she’d have to rely on Andros. Wherever he was. If he didn’t have a scroll, then surely he knew how to re-write the barrier.

“Thwarted by doors yet again…” Akaja murmured to herself. “Guess it can’t be helped.”

Alternatively, she could just wait until they retrieved the body for the wake, but she was still curious why they were holding the body here. Surely it would make more sense to hold the body at the Spirit Blossoms, or at least have a Druid watch over it in the gardens to ensure Yu’s spirit would pass on. Even with the Akiyama’s influence, no Druid would agree to be held in a locked dungeon.

Another mystery to add to the pile.

She turned around, and made her way to the main hall, where all the guests would be.